At present, users increasingly require more and more capacity of data communication products, such as ATM exchanges, routers, etc. The architecture of current ATM exchanges, routers, etc. mainly includes circuit cards, switched network cards, and a back plane connecting the circuit cards and switched network. Generally, such data communication products have a single framework structure. Accompanying the increased demand for capacity, the design of the products faces the following technical problems:
a) When capacity is more than hundreds of Gbit, there are many circuit cards, such as POS interface circuit cards, ATM interface circuit cards and Giga-bit interface cards etc. Power consumption of the whole machine is larger, and it is difficult to implement them with only one framework. Especially when the capacity of the product is over 160 Gbit, with present technology, the technical problems of structure cannot be solved with a single framework, and multiple frameworks may be required. With multiple frameworks, there are problems, such as interconnection between frameworks, main card and backup card switching etc., without successful design scheme.
b) Different markets of data communication have different requirements of rated capacity. Therefore, the manufacturer is asked to provide a series of products, such as 10 Gbit, 40 Gbit, 80 Gbit, 160 Gbit, 320 Gbit, 640 Gbit, 1.2 Tbit and several tens Tbit. At present, different series products provided by different manufacturers have different architectures. Although some manufacturers implement circuit card compatibility for one or two series in a single framework, the architecture needs to be changed. There is no successful solution with smooth capacity expansion for all series or from 40 Gbit to Tbit series.
c) As data communication develops rapidly, capacity requirements will increase. When a client purchases a data communication product, it is according to the capacity requirement at that time. Later, usually the capacity needs to be expanded. At present, when capacity expansion is needed, most manufacturers ask a client to purchase the new generation product so that most old products cannot be used again. In this case, the client needs to invest more for capacity expansion. Therefore, when capacity expansion is needed, it is valuable to protect as much as possible the original investment of a client. For data communication products investment of circuit cards occupies more than 60% of the hardware cost. Obviously, when a system is upgraded, circuit card compatibility will directly influence the client investment and expansion cost. According to the present technology, when capacity expansion is needed, it is often solved by replacing the product. Thus expansion problems are often solved by replacing a lower capacity product with a larger capacity product. Yet an upgrade of client equipment is expensive.